Darting Into Spring Sports

Paloma+Sandoval+runs+against+Junction+City+at+one+of+the+home+meets.++

Molly Kaiser

Paloma Sandoval runs against Junction City at one of the home meets.

Edith Solorzano, reporter

The start of spring sports is now here and it’s now time to support some of our favorites. The Girls Soccer team started off the season with a 7-2 win against Wichita Independence. Ellie Anspaugh said, “It was pretty exciting starting off the season with a win.” The soccer coach  Ayala said, “They did awesome, they scored 7 goals, and they were able to stop the scoring from the other team after they scored 2 goals.” Boys golf had their first meet in Garden City,“For the first tournament, I would say we performed as we probably would have expected.  The tournament was played on a tough golf course on a difficult weather day. We have four freshman on our varsity, so we were very nervous at first, not knowing exactly what to expect.  On average, all scores for the tournament were higher due to the tougher conditions, including ours,” said coach McAtee. The track team competed at their invitational here at home with the panthers resulting in 1st for the boys and and 4th for the girls. Paloma Sandoval placed 1st at the 1600 race, 2nd in the 3200 race, and 1st in the 4×8,“we have been working very hard and I expect that we will make it to state in several event and be successful in them as well, Afterwards I felt really excited because I knew that we were only going to get better.” The softball team played on march 29 against Cheney for their first game, Baylee Beck said, “the team played very well for the first game of the year! I was very proud of my girls! We have a lot of good athletes on the team and we have a chance to win WAC.” The Baseball team played against Goddard for their first game “we showed a lot of fight in the second game of the doubleheader nearly coming back and to tie it up. Unfortunately, we lost that game by one run, the one thing we must improve on this season is being more consistent on the mound. We have had some good outings followed up by struggles with the strike zone early in the count,’ stated coach Beck. The tennis team had their first meet at Mcpherson march 27, which resulted in Great Bend finishing 8th at the meet.”We lost 4 Varsity members from last year and are a VERY young team that lacks match experience at higher levels. However, we are sound in technique this year and working very hard in practice to step up to the next level of play. We will be a force to be reckoned with in the coming seasons,’ stated coach Bliven. The girls swim team have won their first 4 meets of the season putting them on top of the scoreboard. When asked about goals and improvements coach Beaumont said ‘We have a lot of young swimmers that are new to high school swimming, so experience is lacking in that area. This will happen with time.  Winning another WAC title, and qualifying as many relays and individuals as we can for the State Meet in Topeka. We just need to be the best TEAM that we can be.” As WAC and State approaches athletes train harder to become the best that they can be. Good Luck To All Spring Sports!